


slow days, fast company

by possumdnp



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: 2019, Introspection, M/M, Portugal - Freeform, Skinny Dipping, alcohol mention, post-coming out universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:07:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25272142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possumdnp/pseuds/possumdnp
Summary: Dan and Phil return to Portugal in 2019.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Comments: 12
Kudos: 72





	slow days, fast company

**Author's Note:**

> Based on [this wonderful moodboard prompt](https://midnightradio.tumblr.com/post/623274212295163904/slow-days-fast-company) by Andrea (midnightradio). Thanks for the inspiration!!
> 
> (For your reference, I'm imagining this to be a [fictional] trip they took in August 2019.)

“Why do you think sunbathing feels so good?” Dan asks. His voice sounds sleepy, and it makes Phil feel warm inside. After all the stress they’ve been through this past year, Dan’s comfortable right now, no worries in the world right now.

“I think that we’re secretly cats,” Phil says. “We’ve got this instinct to just nap in a warm patch of sunlight. Maybe that’s why everyone’s so angry all the time, because the modern world is just too fast-paced to give into our cat instincts.”

“Sounds like some furry shit to me,” Dan says, taking a sip of his cocktail.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Phil says with a laugh.

“It does feel good to relax though, doesn’t it?” Dan says.

“Mmhmmm.” Phil glances over, taking in Dan’s long, lean body. He’s grown tanner in the week that they’ve been here in Portugal, and he looks like a treat. Phil kinda wants to kiss him all over, but he also doesn’t want to move an inch. It’s quite the dilemma. “What if we just lived here forever?”

“I think you’d miss the rainy days, sitting in our lounge. And what about your houseplants?”

“True,” Phil says with a sigh. “I just like this, you know? Being lazy, with you. Being able to sunbathe outside by a pool. It feels _perfect.”_ He picks up his glass and finishes up the last of his too-sweet homemade cocktail before setting the empty glass back down on the table between their lounge chairs.

“It wouldn’t feel special if we just lived here though,” Dan says. “And besides, would you really want a pink house?” He gestures to the candy floss-pink walls of the Airbnb surrounding the courtyard they’re sitting in.

“Of course I would,” Phil says immediately.

_“Phi-illl,”_ Dan whines. “It’s ugly.”

“Don’t call the house ugly,” Phil says. “He didn’t mean it, Mister House. You’re beautiful just the way you are.”

Dan laughs. “I see you’re at the point of drunkenness where you’re talking to inanimate objects as though they have feelings.”

“Well, when the house murder-haunts you in your sleep because you called it ugly, don’t come crying to me,” Phil says, picking up his glass for a drink before remembering that it’s empty. He sighs - the struggles of holiday life are real. “Dan. I need another drink.”

“Let’s go swimming first,” Dan says. “Take advantage of it while we have it, you know?”

Phil stretches, trying to motivate himself to get up. Dozing by the pool is fun, but swimming is also fun.

Dan stands and stretches his arms above his head. Phil gazes at his long, lean torso with half-closed eyes. Dan catches his eye and grins. “Actually, scratch that. We’re alone. Let’s go skinny-dipping.”

It feels novel and risky, slipping off their swimming shorts and leaving them on the pool chairs, even though there’s no risk, really. The pool is in their private Airbnb’s courtyard area, enclosed on all sides by walls. They’re the only ones who could possibly be here. No one’s gonna see them.

But now that he’s naked out in the sunshine, Phil’s very aware that he’s never skinny-dipped before. He’s never had the opportunity, really. All of these years, and he and Dan still haven’t done everything together.

He thinks he would’ve liked to, back when they went to Portugal the first time. They’d stayed in a tiny little hotel room, the cheapest one they could find, because they were young and poor. Phil doesn’t actually remember if that hotel had a pool, because he and Dan had spent half their time exploring Lisbon, and half their time locked up in that tiny hotel room, spending their precious time together alone.

Now they can afford to rent a whole private house for a two-week getaway, just to celebrate the fact that they’ve actually come out to the world. They don’t have to be shut away in a tiny room to be intimate with each other. They can swim around in this pool, be free in the world to enjoy each other’s company. (He thinks that maybe that could be a metaphor for these past few months or something, but his mind is a bit too hazy from the sun and from the homemade cocktails they’ve been sipping on all afternoon to think about it too much.)

“Our first Portugal trip was so different than this trip,” Phil says, as he watches Dan slip naked into the pool.

“Yeah,” Dan says. “But I loved it. It was our first big trip out of the country together, you know?”

“And to think that even after we’ve traveled the world together, we still end up back here, in the same country.”

Dan grins. “I mean, I dunno about you, but I feel like Portugal will always be kinda nostalgic for me. Our first time out of the country together. All those hours spent walking by the ocean together. The first time I fucked you -”

“Dan!” Phil says. He feels his face turn warm.

“What? Not like anyone can hear us talking,” Dan says. He’s still got a giant, cheeky smile on his face.

“I know,” Phil says, smiling back. “Just feels weird to think about. It feels like it happened so long ago, but also like it happened yesterday.”

“Time is a mental construct, bub.” Dan sinks into the water so it’s covering his shoulders. The pool is shallow; at its deepest point, their feet still reach the bottom. “Maybe it'd be fun if we, like, recreated some of those moments, for nostalgia’s sake?”

Phil’s oddly touched. Dan’s not a very nostalgic person, not in the same way Phil is, but he often indulges in Phil’s nostalgia because he knows it makes him happy.

Still, Phil shakes his head. “I think I want this trip to be its own thing. I don’t really want to recreate anything. I just feel like we’ve entered a new phase of our lives now, like we’re free or something. I don’t want to go backward.”

Dan smiles softly. “Me neither.”

\---

They float naked in the pool for a long while. It could turn sexy, but Phil’s kinda glad it doesn’t. He likes just being naked for the sake of being naked sometimes. It feels freeing, like they’ve returned to nature - even if they’re floating in a chlorinated pool surrounded by unnaturally pink walls.

“I’m so happy right now,” he says. And maybe it’s the alcohol talking, because he just feels so buzzy and warm with happiness and contentment, but it feels so true. “Like, I kinda can’t believe we actually came out to everyone.”

“Did it just hit you?” Dan says, laughing. “It’s been several months.”

“Maybe a bit.”

Dan swims over. “It hits me too sometimes. Like, sometimes, I really think about it, and I can’t believe we actually did it. It feels good.”

“It feels _the best._ I’m proud of us. Of you.” He splashes a bit of water at Dan, and Dan snorts.

“I think you’re a little tipsy, Philly.”

“No.”

Dan laughs and leans in to kiss him. Phil’s eyes close, and he lets himself just feel.

The water lapping against both of their bodies.

The warmth of the sun on his naked back.

Dan’s lips on his, and his tongue. He tastes a bit like the cherry-flavoured cocktail that they’d made earlier this afternoon, but mostly, he just tastes like Dan.

Dan’s hands trailing along his sides, down to his hips, around to squeeze at his bum. Phil shivers in anticipation and thinks that maybe he wouldn’t mind this skinny-dipping session turning sexy after all.

But Dan pulls away. “We can’t fuck in this swimming pool.”

“Why not?” Phil whines, making grabby hands to try and get him back.

“Because I want to swim in it again. And it’s probably rude to come in an AirBnb’s pool.”

“Fine,” Phil says with an exaggerated sigh. “We can be polite houseguests. If you insist.”

Dan grins and takes his hand, leading them to the pool stairs. “Besides, I’m hungry, and I think we’ve still got some fruit from that market.”

Phil perks up. “Oh my god, we’re eating some more of those peaches that we bought. I think those are actually better than sex.”

Dan laughs. “I feel like I should be offended, but you’re right.”

And so they head inside to eat peaches in the kitchen, still naked and dripping wet from the pool. They honestly both look a mess: they’re both a little bit sunburnt, Dan's hair is a bird's nest of curls, and Phil's got peach juice dripping down his chin. 

Even so, when Dan meets his eye and smiles, Phil can't help but wonder how he ever got so damn lucky.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Feel free to [reblog](https://possumdnp.tumblr.com/post/623663386706755584/slow-days-fast-company-m-15k-summary-dan-and), or to check out the wonderful [moodboard prompt](https://midnightradio.tumblr.com/post/623274212295163904/slow-days-fast-company) that inspired this fic! <3


End file.
